


no law, no code of conduct

by helenabarbara



Category: One Direction (Band), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: M/M, X-Men References, X-men Inspired
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-03-29 21:37:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3911551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helenabarbara/pseuds/helenabarbara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"does it hurt, when they come out?"</p><p>"every time."</p><p>x-men!au. zayn could use a silver tongue, louis's is sharp as a dull knife, harry is blinded by love, liam just wants his actions to matter and everyone talks about niall, but he's never there.</p><p>oh, and they all have cool codenames that no one ever uses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. a world of endless possibilities and infinite outcomes

**Author's Note:**

> another fanfic, alright. let's do this. i haven't even finished the one i meant to complete, but whatever.
> 
> yay, procrastination.
> 
> i love the x-men films, i'm obsessed, even.watched them countless of times and read all the wikipedia pages. there are probably a lot of scenes from all the films.
> 
> the title is a quote from the great wolverine himself, my favourite x-men. apart from mystique, beast, charles, kitty (god, i love ellen page, anyone played beyond: two souls? she's great. just great.) and the rest of them. he's not my favourite because he's supposed to be but come on, hugh jackman is a fucking amazing actor.
> 
> mutant and proud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quote in italic is the exact words of charles xavier in the beginning of what i believe all films. the title is also part of a quote from professor x (the last words of _days of future past_ )
> 
> "the past: a new and uncertain world. a world of endless possibilities and infinite outcomes. countless choices define our fate: each choice, each moment, a moment in the ripple of time. enough ripple, and you change the tide... for the future is never truly set."
> 
> first scene will be pretty recognisable, but no rogue this time.

**i.**   
  


_Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It is how we have evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward._

\---

People were booing. They were angry, shouting about and hurling insults at the figure standing in the corner of the boxing ring. Well, you could hardly call them people. They came here every night; watching, enjoying fights between men, thrilled when one was almost killed. They were animals. Filthy beasts with beer dripping down their chins and dirt underneath their nails. One of them was yelling, screaming he could take the man out in a second. The referee called him down, whispered something in his ear and then turned to the audience, announcing a final fight. People weren’t booing anymore, they were excited now – the man was big, burly, they were sure he was gonna win this fight.

He didn’t.

The figure took a step away from the shadows towards the burly guy, revealing a young man. “Wanna give up now, you pussy?” he sneered, but the young man merely blinked. He didn’t respond either, just stood still in his spot. The big guy swung at him and excited shouts arose from the tribunes. However, the young man only swayed a little from the impact and wiped away the blood coming out of his nose. He glared at his opponent and won the fight with a single blow to the temple.

Leaning against a pole, another spectator let out the breath he was holding. The blond fella was tense, shaking his head. He hadn’t cheered when the young victor knocked out his vicious opponent. 

“That was impressive.” The blond guy sat down on the stool next to him. “What you did out there.” Behind them were the burly guy and one of his mates in the middle of a heated discussion. All of a sudden was the loser’s friend holding a knife.

“What do you want?” the young man practically growled at the blond.

The bloke was about to respond something but all he said was, “Look out!” The young man turned around quickly and pinned the guy that was about the stab him in the back to the nearby wall. The guy promptly dropped the knife, choking a “you’re one of them” when metal claws emerged from in between his target’s knuckles. The claws were pricking his throat and he gurgled, eyes bulging and flicking from his buddy back to the lethal knives poking his Adam’s apple. It wasn’t until the bartender yelled the young man to get his filthy mutant ass out of there that he got back his attitude, snarling at him, “yeah, get out, you fucking mutant.” By the time he got out in the cold and the claws were gone, the mutant turned around and glared.

“Why are you following me?”

“I wasn’t done talking to you,” the blond said simply.

“You are now,” The mutant rolled his eyes and stepped backward.

“I need you to come with me.”

“Not a fucking chance,” he growled at the guy. “Hasn’t your mummy told you not to get in the car with strangers? Let alone with a fucking mutant?”

“My mummy is dead. Now get in the car, we don’t have much time left.” He beckoned him with a simple wave of his hand and with one last growl the mutant followed him, dumbfounded.

\---

“Paradox.”

“What?”

“That’s my name; Paradox.”

The mutant snickered. “So you’re like what, all mysterious and contradictory? You sure don’t look like it. What were you doing in there anyway? It’s no place for innocent looking blondies like you.”

“Oh, I’m not innocent, believe me. And call me Zayn, if you prefer real name basis.” Suddenly the blond whisks framing his young face started to darken, as well as the pale skin and his facial features sharpened. His light green eyes turned a silvery colour and he raised an eyebrow at the now astounded pal seated next to him.

“You’re a mutant, then. Huh.” Zayn nodded slowly. “Wolverine. Call me Louis.” A grin formed on Zayn’s face and he sat up straighter.

“Good to finally meet you, Louis. We are going to have so much _fun_ together.”

\---

“That guy was gonna fucking kill you, mate. But you can thank us later,” Zayn casually said, while trotting through the door into what turned out to be a spacious kitchen. The mansion they arrived at was enormous.

“I don't-”

“He doesn't die.” Louis whipped his head around, to where some guy was standing in the doorway. He glowered at him and turned back to Zayn, whom blurted out a “you don't  _die_?”

“I don’t, probably never will,” Louis confirmed gruffly. Zayn’s incredulousness was kind of ridicule coming from a bloke whom could transform into literally anyone. And he was still mad that guy dared to interrupt him. “Now, can you fucking tell me how _he_ knows about that?” He pointed at the dude that interrupted him. “Who even is this guy? And could you tell me what the fuck you expect me to do here?”

The dude smirked at him and Louis got even more furious, balled his fists and tried to not slit anyone’s throat. Zayn coughed, “Perhaps we could start with names?”

“Wolverine, you already know that.” Louis curtly said.

“I know too.” He was really starting to hate this guy.

“What?” _Then why do you even ask?_  He grumpily thought.

“Your dog tag says so.” Louis glared at him. He was confused. And angry. He never told anyone about those. Hell, Louis didn’t even know where he got them.

“How do you-”

“You're gonna lose them,” was the answer and “don't waste your anger, pal, I already know what you're gonna say so you should be happy I let you finish at least half of your sentences.” Behind them, Zayn snickered.

Louis glared at him, too.

He, Zayn, apparently had dug up a little empathy from somewhere and led him out to the living room. He told him to sit down on the couch. Louis did so, slowly, forcing himself to not snap at the underlying command. The two others sat down across from him. He wanted to yell at one of them and simply kill the other, but he had not the slightest idea of what the interrupting guy could do. He was a mutant, Louis was sure of it. “So, _Louis_. This is Augury, he has future sight. Also, he likes to lie about shit and keep things from his friends,” Zayn said, his silver eyes piercing the bloke’s skull. If looks could kill that guy would be long dead by now.

“I’m sorry.” Louis smirked at their confused faces – well, just Zayn’s, ‘Augury’ was already glaring at him, and said slyly, “that your parents named you _Augury_. It’s kind of a girly name.”

“It’s not my real name, you dumbass. I hope you’re not genuinely this stupid, or you’ll be pretty useless to us.” Zayn rolled his eyes and told Louis to come with him, that they’d continue their little ‘talk’ the next morning.

\---

It was three AM when Louis suddenly woke up with the crave of cold air. He made his way outside, through the living space and glass door that provided access to a beautiful balcony. He leaned over the railing, elbows balancing on the cold metal and his head hung between his arms.  
  
“It started with death, you know.” Louis looked over his shoulders, now noticing the figure sitting against the brick wall. He didn't reply, just turned around completely and slid down the icy bars.  
  
“I knew exactly when everyone was going to die, saw it with my own eyes. Mum said I was lying when I told her I could see shit.” He looked straight at Louis now, and even though he knew the boy couldn't see him, the milky green stare sent shivers down his spine. “I still can. That's how I knew you are practically immortal - no death. The future isn't as fucking clear.” He sounded pained as he spoke.  
  
Louis almost felt pity for him. Almost. Yes, he totally did. He crawled over to where the other boy was seated. Both of their attitudes of earlier that night were long gone.  
  
“Does it hurt, when they come out?” his voice was small, vulnerable. He traced a cold finger down Louis's hand and wrist.  
  
“Every time,” he whispered, acknowledging he was listening to him. “Every single time.”

They were silent for a long time until the boy whispered in Louis’s ear, “I’m Harry.”

\---

_His name was Harry. His name was Harry and his eyes looked like milky ways. Louis wanted to show him the moons and the stars and the galaxies and warm his heart like he was the sun._

\---

The next morning Louis made his way into the kitchen. Zayn and Harry were already having breakfast, but there was a steaming plate set on the table across from them. He sat down and took a bite. The taste wasn’t bad.

“So, care to finally tell why I’m here?” he enquired, leaning back in his chair. Zayn looked at him over the rim of his glasses and sighed.

“Mutants all over the world are in danger, you know that right?” Louis nodded. “Well, one of our closest friends, a brother, was taken. He is a very powerful mutant and vital to the research of AID, a company that is trying to find a way to supress the mutant gene in children. Niall, or Ruse, is what they call bimutated. Which means he has two different mutations, not just a mental _or_ physical mutation, but both.”

“I get it. So you and I have physical mutations, while Harry here has a mental one.” If Zayn was surprised at the fact that Louis now knew Harry’s real name, he didn’t show it.

“Correct. There are also homo-genetic and hetero-genetic bimutated mutants, if you want to be more specific. Homo-genetic means the mutant has two different mutations of the same category. Niall is hetero-genetic. He is a telepath, a fucking amazing one I have to say, and he’s winged. Full-grown wings are almost impossible to hide, though we succeeded for a while – but as you can probably already guess, it wasn’t enough.”

Louis frowned. “This place is located in the middle of nowhere! How could they possibly have noticed you?” Zayn’s eyes blazed with anger.

“Niall’s father worked with AID. He was initially the one that came up with the idea of supressing the genes. Not only that, but he also thought less of his _own son_ because he was a mutant. Niall hated him for that.”

“His mother died while giving birth, so when Niall’s wings started growing his father blamed his wife’s death on the mutation of his son,” Harry added quietly. “There used to be a lot of hatred in this house.”

Louis closed his eyes for a second. This was a lot to progress. “Still, this doesn’t explain why Zayn brought me here.” The said boy smiled softly, almost fond.

“Niall was a little obsessed with you.” Louis gaped in shock.

“What? Why?”

Harry spoke up before Zayn could. “Louis, how much do you remember from before your time on the road?” Louis’s heart jumped and there was a loud crash when his claws emerged and penetrated the vase standing on the table.

“Fuck, I’m really sorry-” Louis was already kneeling down, picking up the bigger pieces of porcelain. The sudden flashback of his first memory shocked him. He didn’t know. He woke up one day on a deserted industrial island with metal claws.

“Louis, leave it be. It was ugly anyway.” Louis nodded and sat back on the chair. He laughed a little.

“I don’t remember anything.” He raised an eyebrow at Harry, who was now sitting alone. “Where’s Zayn?”

“I’m right here.” The boy came back into the kitchen and dumped a stack of papers on the table. “That’s everything Niall wrote down and collected about you.” Louis immediately noticed the huge AID stamp on one of the files. He pointed at it.

“Do they have a file of every mutant born or something?” They both shook their heads.

“You were experimented on at AID, willingly. By the team of Niall’s father.” Harry pointed at his hands. “They injected you with melted adamantium, a metal that can only be destroyed by something made of the same material. Once it hardens, it never rusts or weakens. It attached itself to your skeleton. You ought to have had some trouble with that at the airport.” Louis leaned forward with his head in his hands.

“Please tell me he’s dead.”

“He is. Dancker killed him off after some of the files about you were stolen.” _By Niall, probably._

“Wait a minute, what’s his full name?” Zayn laughed, catching on.

“Arnold Isaac Dancker, he named his own company after himself.”

“More like Arnold _Wanker_ , then.” And despite the situation, they all laughed.

\---


	2. the discovery of their existence has been regarded with fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda short but i tried.
> 
> chapter title is from a quote of charles xavier (prof x) in _x2: x-men united_.
> 
> "mutants. since the discovery of their existence they have been regarded with fear, suspicion, often hatred. across the planet, debate rages. are mutants the next link in the evolutionary chain or simply a new species of humanity fighting for their share of the world? either way it is a historical fact: sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute."

**ii.**  


He felt a lot of hatred, going through everything Niall collected about him. There even were a couple of pictures, taken during the big experiment. He looked at his own face, that was contorted in pain with his mouth wide open, screaming. Louis wrecked his brain for memories, but there were none. The only thing he remembered was waking up with dead bodies scattered around him and metal claws poking from in between his knuckles. He needed to know what happened to him at AID, why his memory was completely blank. He was frowning at another photograph when there was noise outside and a voice was saying things Louis couldn’t hear clearly. He got up from the bed and made his way outside, where both boys were standing on the driveway.

“Doxy?” Louis lightly touched the ginger’s arm. Zayn had made it very clear to use their codenames outside the house, so Louis had taken the mickey out of him by calling him Doxy. It kind of stuck, though. The ginger gave him a tight nod and Louis knew it was Zayn in disguise. Harry was only wearing sunglasses. They looked good on him. “What’s going on?”

“There’s someone out there,” Zayn said. “I know you’re here, don’t be a wuss and show yourself!” He yelled at the empty space. Suddenly there was movement nearby a large rock. They all watched with gaping mouths as a boy materialised. He seemed to be their age and very jittery. The rock seemed to have slinked, like the boy had been part of it. The boy was leaning against the rock, fumbling with his dirty sleeves as Zayn angrily stalked up to him with Louis and Harry in tow. “Who are you?” he demanded.

The boy mumbled something, but Zayn seemed to have heard it. His tough demeanour softened a little, “you’re one of Ruse’s inmates, right? He mentioned you once or twice.” He was nodding along with Zayn’s words and smiled when the ginger offered him a hand. “Guys, this is Optic. He has managed to escape from AID, don’t ask me how, and he’ll hopefully help us to get Ruse out.” Zayn looked at their new addition, who nodded with bright eyes. Once they had gotten inside and the new boy was sitting down with a strong cup of tea that Harry quickly fixed for him, they all seemed to relax. Harry took off his sunglasses and Zayn morphed back into his beautiful self, which lead to the new boy blurting out a “cool eyes, mate”. Zayn took the compliment with a faint blush on his cheeks, his silver eyes shining.

“So, tell us about yourself, Optic. I hope that’s not your real name, no offence,” Zayn said dryly.

“My name’s Liam, no need to worry,” the boy snickered, fiddling with his sleeves again. “Sorry to scare you like that, but I didn’t know if I could just knock on the door or..”

“It’s perfectly okay, mate. No worries,” Harry piped up from where he was making more tea for himself. Zayn made a noise of agreement.

“What about your mutation? Also, do you have any news about AID for us?”

“You saw the thing with the rock right?” They all nodded. “I can adapt to any matter, become one with it and morph into any shape I want.” Louis hummed, that was impressive. “There are boundaries, though. And they found there is one thing I can’t adapt to, which proved me pretty useless on military grounds. They kind of forgot about me, that’s how I was able to escape.”

“What’s that thing?” Louis asked quietly, looking down at his hands.

“Adamantium. I think you in particular know how powerful that is,” Liam said to him and Louis rolled his eyes, because seriously, did everyone on this fucking planet know about that?

“I was pretty close with Niall in there. Not to forget that doctor Horan got pretty angry at me for being useless against Wolverine, so yeah,” Liam added, like he read his mind. he pushed up his sleeves, revealing ugly scars littering his arms. “Despite the name, AID is pretty much shit at providing care for all the mutants they torture.” So that’s what they meant when they mentioned that his rough behaviour was ‘taken care of’. Louis’s complete lack of scars made sense, though. He healed too quickly.

“What about Niall? Got any news for us?” Liam grimaced at the question.

“I'm afraid I only got some bad news for you. They were curious how it was possible for his wings to carry him, so they took a DNA sample. Niall wasn't cooperating and they broke his left wing.” They all winced sympathetically. Zayn seemed close to crying, but his expression was hard as diamonds.

“We need to get him out of there. Alive.”

\---

Zayn gave them a little tour around the huge mansion the next afternoon.

Niall used to live here with his father and his brother Greg, who's also a mutant. When Liam asked whether Greg died as well, Zayn told them that no, he didn't but once the lad found out where his father had been working he fled into the forest behind their home. Though his mutation was dangerous, Niall missed him very much. The young brother tried to reach him via the telepathic abilities he was developing, but he wasn't strong enough. At one point he stopped hoping that his brother would come back. Eventually he just stopped looking.

They were walking past the bedrooms, when they skipped one of the doors. Louis stopped in front of it.

“What's in here?” Zayn sighed and turned around.

“That's Niall’s old bedroom.” Louis reached out for the door handle but Liam stopped him. He nodded in Zayn’s direction, who was biting his lip.

“Zayn, what's wrong?” Liam asked. His hand was still touching Louis’s.

“I'm not so sure you guys want to see this… It's quite horrifying.” Taking those words in quick consideration, Louis pushed down the handle. He opened the door and the smell of old blood immediately hit his nostrils, like a smack in the face.

“What is _that_?”

“Blood,” Liam whispered. He shuffled around the room, touching the walls and furniture. His fingertips turned wood-like and chalky white like the walls. Louis watched him and when Liam caught him looking he blushed fiercely. “I like to- it feels nice to like, uh…yeah.”

\---

“What happened in there?” They were sitting in the kitchen, reunited again with Harry. Said lad looked at Zayn with a surprised expression.

“You showed them?” Zayn nodded. He forlornly looked down at his tea, then scraped his throat and took another sip.

“I told you about his dad, right? He was quite genophobic. Niall was devastated when his mutation started manifesting, he even tried to cut off his wings. It didn't work. He must have been so desperate and in so much pain-” Zayn choked out. “I couldn't believe him when he told me all that. Sure, his dad always gave me nasty  looks, but I didn’t think he would hate his own _son_.”

“But what about Greg?”

“His disappearance was the final straw for both Niall and his father. He was kind of Niall’s role model and then suddenly he was gone.”

“The posters,” Harry said softly. Zayn and Liam missed it, but Louis heard it loud and clear. The Justin Bieber posters in Niall's room, the were the most shocking thing in there. There were wings drawn on Justin's torso. Louis could only think about how lonely Niall must have felt, living alone in this mansion with just his dad and some maids. The former not loving him for who he truly is.

\---

There was something Liam wasn't telling them. Louis didn't know what, but he'd find out, one way or another. He was too twitchy, a little too stiff.

_In times like these, knowing your friends and foes is crucial._

\---

Three days later, Zayn suddenly barged into the room Louis now called his own.

“What the fuck, mate!” He spluttered, pushing himself off the ground hastily. He missed the daily fighting and exercise already. Zayn seemed to have sensed what he had been doing and grinned.

“You started on your own already, that’s great. You don’t seem to be a problem, but Harry and Liam need to get beaten into shape. Want to help?”

Though Liam still looked dead on his feet and was way too skinny, he was eager to gain some strength back. “I used to be a little more muscular, but they didn’t always give me food at AID,” he said with a smile, though Louis couldn’t exactly ascertain whether he was being ironic. That smile didn’t reach his eyes, that’s for sure.

“Harry’s a fine cook, so you’ll be alright,” he answered, after a few beats. “Especially his chicken. I suspect he can predict when it’s cooked, the bastard.” Liam snorted.

“You just might be right, who knows.” He huffed out a breath. “Got any more weights for me? Better quick and painful, then slow and easy.” Louis wasn’t sure that was a healthy way of looking at things, but hey, this guy was motivated as fuck.

“Can’t you, like, transform your muscles into metal, or something,” he said, frowning when Liam laughed at him.

“I probably could, but that wouldn’t make me any stronger. I’d rather not have metal in my body at all times – oh shit, sorry.” Louis waved him off.

“You have to admit it’s pretty cool, though.” Liam nodded with a careful grin.

“It kinda is.”

\---

That night, Louis couldn’t sleep. He had reread all the files Zayn had given him twice, but there were no clues as to why he had no memories of that time period of his life. Or his life before that. Did he have a family? Were they still alive? He hadn’t really aged the past ten years, so who knew how old he really was? He could be hundred years old, for fucks sake.

He needed to know if they were still alive, if any of his kin still lived.

Louis decided to ask Harry about it the next morning. He was determined to discover his true identity.

\---

 


End file.
